4Bank of the East River, Manhattan
New York City
June 1883
Lev felt relaxed and at peace, lying on his back, with the sun beaming down on his face. He always felt good to be here at his favorite spot on the waterfront, a couple of blocks north of the Manhattan tower of the great bridge. He never tired of looking at the bridge. Now that it had been completed, the crowds appeared slightly smaller. It didn’t matter to Lev. Sitting on the embankment and watching the ships go by let him escape from the dingy life of the Lower East Side. Down river, directly under the bridge he could see a large crowd, apparently involved in some sort of ceremony.
Each day, the conflict within him grew more intense. In a little more than two years, they had moved from the grinding poverty of Tsarist Russia t
